This past Tuesday at 8:30 was the first Democratic debate for the 2016 presidential race. It was hosted in Las Vegas, Nevada and the moderator was Anderson Cooper. The broadcast consisted of 15.3 million views and CNN was the station for the debate. The debate featured five possible candidates for president including Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee. Hillary was center stage for the debate with Jim Webb and Bernie Sanders on the left and Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee on her right.
Hillary Clinton is better known than the other candidates since she was the former Secretary of State for the Obama Administration, ran previously for president in 2008, has had a variety of known political careers, and is married to former President Bill Clinton. It was awesome to see another side of the current campaign other than from the Republican view. Bernie Sanders is currently the junior senator from Vermont and has been on the Senate Budget Committee since January 2015. He would describe himself as a Democratic Socialist and does not take any money from big businesses. One of his big issues that he discussed is the college debt situation that is effecting this country. Martin O’Malley was the former governor from Maryland, and was mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007. He has discussed possibly running for national office in the past and now he is pursuing it for November 2016. Jim Webb is a former senator from Virginia that served from 2007 to 2013. He has previously served as Secretary of the Navy, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. Lincoln Chafee is the last of the five candidates that are running for the Democratic nomination for president. He served as the 74th governor of Rhode Island, and was a senator from 1999-2007.
Many topics from gun control to women’s rights were discussed at the debate on Tuesday. The candidates brought up the recent shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. Clinton and former governor O’Malley were on the side for more control. The other three candidates were more for mental health and reform when it comes to guns in the United States. Some candidates were more prepared than others for the debate. Bernie Sanders has a niche for rebelling against corporations and inequality. Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee were the least attentive in the entire debate. Clinton’s biggest strength and weakness is her length of experience so the candidates hit her hard on those points relating to it. Hillary did throw out some punches to O’Malley on supporting her in the past and to Sanders on his rebellion from capitalism.
One of the many differences from the Republican debates are that this particular group of Democrats agree on the same broad set of ideals. These include making the taxes higher on the wealthy, increasing the service safety programs that help millions of Americans, and fighting the effects of climate change. They also support not being in foreign messes, and opening the access of higher education so that people do not have student debt. The special aspect of this presidential run was that for all of the candidates, there is no incumbent, so it is a clean slate for a new administration to take place in the White House. There were a lot less candidates on the stage compared to the field of Republicans, but it was just as exciting.